Google on Monday announced a widely expected open-development platform for mobile devices backed by industry heavyweights like T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm and Motorola that could shake the wireless market to its core by simplifying and reducing the cost of developing mobile applications. The platform, called Android, has been developed by Google and others as part of the Open Handset Alliance, which has over 30 partners supporting it. The goal of this ambitious initiative is to spur innovation in the mobile space and accelerate improvements in how people use the Web via cell phones. The open-source platform will have a complete set of components, including an operating system, middleware stack, customizable user interface and applications.

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported Tuesday evening that Google is in “serious discussions” with Verizon Wireless to put its mobile “GPhone” software on Verizon phones. For months, people have been speculating about the rumored Google “GPhone.” Most people believe that it’s not a specific phone, but is more likely an operating system or software that integrates many of Google’s mobile services, like Web search, Gmail, Youtube, and Google Maps, onto phones made by existing handset makers. But more than simply integrating Google services onto handsets, the new Google mobile OS is believed to be an open platform on which application developers would have free reign to develop a slew of new applications and services.

Even the Mozilla Foundation, makers of the popular Firefox Web browser, thinks it’s time to break out of the browser.

On Thursday, developers from Mozilla announced a project called Prism that will, along with other “experiments,” make Web applications better resemble desktop programs.

The idea with Prism is that people can integrate their favorite Web applications with their desktop operating systems.

For example, a person could access Web-based programs Gmail or Facebook from the applications menu of Mac OS or Windows. Or they could create an icon for Facebook on their desktop that launches in its own window.

Prism is an open-source alternative to AIR, or Adobe Integrated Runtime, software for making desktop applications with Web technologies. AIR is set for a 1.0 release in the first half of next year; there are already a number of early applications that use AIR.